Elder Scheidt in Sapporo, Japan: Transfer calls come tomorrow!

June 19, 2016

So first things first.... The shout outs.

Shout out to Anthony Gastello who is going to efy for the first time.

Enjoy all the environment of efy. I went to efy 3 times and it was a

blast every time I went.

Second. Happy Father's Day to my dad. You're the best dad in the whole

world. Kind of sucks that we can't call home on Father's Day. I feel

like all the dads in the world get jipped by having missionary sons,

but it's all good in the end.

Holy! This week a lot happened so I'll try to keep it short, but have

a lot I want to write about.

Let's break it down: actually I'll just talk about one experience dear

to my heart

Monday: for our district activity we went to the asahikawa zoo. It was

awesome and I got to spend most of the time talking to the

missionaries in my district that I wanted to talk to. The zoo is

really famous I'm Hokkaido, so it was definitely something I had to

try just in case I transfer out of this area this week. Yep, transfers

are this week!

Ok one quick thing story after our P day that was a mission changing

moment for me.

So our investigator tawaraya San got Sundays off work, is starting to

meet with us again, has the desire to get baptized, etc...

Simply put, he was ready for baptism and we decided to teach him law

of tithing when we met him on Monday. He got way pissed and started

yelling and me and my comp. saying that if he paid his tithing he

wouldn't be able to live. Apparently he is more poor than he comes

across to be. My comp is still a trainee, so he didn't know anything

that was going on, but basically the investigator was just roasting me

for not teaching that lesson the first time I met him. There's a lot

of detail I won't put, and my thoughts are all over the place, but to

be short he was not happy with me at all. We spent a good amount of

time talking things out and things didn't really get better at all.

My companion never really talks a whole ton when we go over, so he

didn't really have those anger feelings toward him but, He made me

feel really awful and the meeting went really downhill. He said "I'm

not paying tithing so, I'm not getting baptized, not coming to church,

and I don't want to visit you guys anymore." It was brutal and to be

honest I went back to the apartment and cried hard that night. It was

the first real time I recognized how much I love the people I am

teaching. It was crazy how the lesson went from a way high to a way

low in the blink of an eye. Before we started teaching tithing, we

were talking about when he can get baptized and how the commandments,

Book of Mormon, etch...... Are going. Everything was fine and that's

why we decided to finish the lessons and get things rolling. We went

from looking at a calendar together talking about his schedule to him

raising his voice and point his finger at me in 5 minutes.

I feel like I need to explain the reason for me breaking down like a 3 year old.

I cried for two reasons.

One: I felt like I ruined this guy's salvation by not receiving the

revelation for teaching tithing earlier than we chose to. He kept

telling me it was my fault and I've always been the guy to be pretty

hard on myself. Bad combo. Being in the area longer, being senior

companion, and having a solid relationship with tawaraysan basically

made me take the whole hit. I've been the missionary that has taught

him the longest since he has been found, so My companion was a little

sad, but didn't really understand the whole talk and hasn't taught him

too much since he has come to Japan. The whole hour walk back to the

apartment was dead silent. It was a way rough night for me

Two: my love for him has grown so much over the last 18 weeks. I have

seen him feel the spirit countless times, and to have him reject

everything over one small commandment crushed me. When I told him that

we loved him he told us that he didn't care and wanted us to not visit

anymore. It took a lot of talking to get through to him to finally get

to a point where we can visit again. He had a tough week before that

visit, so I can't blame him kind of letting everything out, but that

doesn't mean I felt super happy after we left.

He had lots of sad things occur earlier in the week and I think that

had the biggest impact on this outburst, but it is okay.

I'm okay now and I will not give up on him. I love him to much to just

leave if he tells me too. You can never be too bold to the people you

teach as long as you have love.

I learned a lot from this experience, but this email is already way

freaking long with almost less than half of what really happened.

Sorry it will half to due.

Hope everyone has an awesome week. This church is true everyone!

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ーシャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Last night one of investigators came to church to invite us over for a meal. They bought me a cake and sang to me. My birthday was over a moth and a half ago, but the mom felt bad for not doing anything haha. I love them so much. Didn't have time to right about that whole story either. Sorry]